Embodiments of the invention generally relate to medical diagnostic devices and procedures, and more particularly to devices and procedures used in ophthalmoscopy.
Medical examination of a patient's eyes typically includes an ophthalmoscopy, a test by which a medical professional, such as an ophthalmologist or a technician, examines and studies the fundus of an eye. During a typical ophthalmoscopy session, the medical professional induces full pupil dilation in the patient's eyes using a chemical agent. Full pupil dilation increases the field-of-view (FOV), i.e. the opening, through which the fundus can be viewed, imaged, and examined. This increased FOV allows the medical professional to examine the eye's internal anatomic structures using visual inspection under white light, and using various devices and imaging techniques that, absent full pupil dilation, is believed, in the prior art, to produce little or no beneficial results.
Chemically-induced pupil dilation is typically performed using eye drops administered by a trained and qualified medical professional. After administering the eye drops, the medical professional and the patient must wait for tens of minutes for full and proper dilation to occur. Thereafter, the pupils remain dilated for many hours.